Hello Daisies! How is it the last month of 2019? Not only that, but the last month of the decade! I can’t believe in just a few short weeks it will be 2020! Anyone else think by this time we’d have flying cars and people living in domes on Mars, or is that just me? Hahaha!
Either way, I am super excited to begin a new year, and so thankful to be doing it with Cocoa Daisy and you all! Being on this team has been such a huge honor for me, and I am humbled to have been asked back for a third year! We have talked many times over the course of my time with Cocoa Daisy about how I am a functional planner. We have amazing people on this team who create works of art with their kits every month, and even though I believe the kits are works of art all on their own, my brain doesn’t work in the same creative way that some of the other Design Team members do – and that’s the beauty of Cocoa Daisy! If I were to take all the Cocoa Daisy out of my planner, I would be left with bare bones, essential, functional planning, because that’s what my brain and my life needs. But add in the Cocoa Daisy kit, and my planner is elevated to another level of gorgeousness, while still keeping the functionality I crave! So I am so thankful to be able to share how I use Cocoa Daisy with the other functional planners out there! (Side note, and then I’ll stop rambling. I tried to think of a better term than “functional planner” and I couldn’t. Let me just say that I think planners are functional for ALL types of planner people, no matter if they’re super decorative or super basic. Our brains all work in different ways, and if someone needs simple and color coded – great! If someone else needs artwork and trim and glitter and all the other stuff Cocoa Daisy includes- awesome! Rock that, because it’s functional for you! I just wanted to add that!)
Diving into my setup: is anyone surprised that I’m in a different planner (and I believe a totally different size from the last time I shared a setup)? No? I didn’t think so. I am back to personal rings, and this time I’m using a Gillio Compagna. I chose this planner because it has all of the things I’m currently needing in a planner. Personal size. Smaller rings. Pen loop. Snap closure. Big back pocket for papers. As always, I can’t guarantee that I will stay in this planner, but I’ll be honest. I really want to try. Planner needs evolve, so planner needs change, so changing up a planner to meet your current needs is an extremely logical thing to do. But like I’ve talked about before, I was losing some of the functionality of my planner by the constant switching. That had more to do with the fact that I was switching between sizes and styles of planners as well. So my goal for 2020 is to stay in this personal gillio, and to just my gorgeous Cocoa Daisy kits to jazz it up and keep it fresh every month!
Here is a picture of my Gillio:
It’s a gorgeous, rich, chocolate brown, and my neutral planner loving heart is so happy with it
I did something different, and left these “snowy gust” stickers on the clear acetate and used it as a dashboard. I thought it looked like snow falling!
These are my two accessory charms for the month. The bookmark is from The Opal Wild, and I got it last year and think it totally matches the Nordic Woods kit! The toboggan and mittens look like what the adorable bunny is wearing and it just makes me happy! The bead cluster at the top of my planner is from Colibri Charms, and it is my absolute favorite. I love her bead clusters, and this is the one she did for Christmas last year, and I LOVE it so much! The colors are my favorite Christmas palette!
The first section in my planner is my calendar section. I have some artwork on the left side (that girl reading is a perfect depiction of me haha), and then one of the Cocoa Daisy dashboards in a divider. My calendar section is divided into three subsections: monthly, weekly, and daily.
The backside of my first divider is decorated with one of my favorite pocket cards from the kit! I have to be honest though – this is a favorite year round activity of mine, and not just a favorite winter activity! Haha! Opposite the card I have a 2020 overview printed on thick vellum. I layered one of the Cocoa Daisy papers behind it to make the design pop!
My monthly layout is from Annie Plans Printables, and I use Cocoa Daisy stickers and washi to decorate it. I keep a year in my planner at a time to use for pre-planning, and I keep previous months in for awhile as well in case I need to reference something, and it’s fun being able to look back and see the different kits all represented in a monthly page!
I absolute love this acetate, and I didn’t want to trim off any of the picture to put in my planner. So I cut it in half and turned it sideways! I layered it over some Cocoa Daisy patterned paper so the design would pop, and I love it. I feel like it’s a little surprise right in the middle of my planner! And then I layered a couple more pocket cards on the back sides of the paper.
Here are my weekly pages. I am using the Cocoa Daisy personal ring weekly inserts. This is a huge factor in my current planner peace. I used to hate horizontal layouts. I used to feel like I needed vertical layouts so that I could plan everything almost like a list. But with the change of my planning style, these inserts work perfectly for me. For those of you who don’t use the ring inserts, they’re different from the Dori books. These have a page that’s broken into thirds, like the Dori, that can be used as a week on two pages but then after each week, there are two blank pages (blank as in they’re not broken into sections. They still have designs on them). So I use the sectioned page as my weekly planning, and the blank pages behind each week as a weekly brain dump, running to do list, menu planning, etc – it becomes whatever I need it to be depending on the week! This has been super handy.
I punched this card and stuck it between my weekly and daily pages. I put one of the sticker pockets (one of my favorite kit items!) on the back, and then put this gorgeous vellum with it. This vellum is stunning and one of my favorites ever – another reason to stay motivated to stay in the same size so I can reuse it next year! Haha
For my daily pages, I cut and punched a personal Dori. I got this idea from Jen (@happyplaceplanning), and it’s one of my favorite things. I use the date stickers and date each page, and then I just use them as I need them. Some days are busy and full, other days are light and lots of white space. But I keep the entire month in here so that I always have room for daily planning!
Next is my personal section. How cute are those gnomes?! I love them!
Every month I print out the Cocoa Daisy monthly challenge printable and keep it in my planner for easy referencing!
These are my Christmas planning inserts from SewMuchCrafting. I get them every year and they are the perfect place to plan everything for Christmas! My husband is a pastor, and for the first time we are hosting and open house for everyone in our church, and this insert has been a lifesaver!
My book inserts! I track all of the books I want to read and color them in after I’ve read them!
My favorite pocket card holder from one of my besties!
This is my family section. This is just a section of notes pages, broken into subsections for each kid. They each have a divider and it’s for anything kid related. Gift ideas, notes, etc. It’s super convenient to have these broken into sections for each kid instead of jumbled up in my regular notes section.
My last section is my notes section. This is for random notes, brain dump, anything else that needs a place in my planner that doesn’t have its own section. This was a huge factor in needing to stay in one size because there is SO MUCH information in these notes pages that was getting lost by switching. So the plan is to stick with this and have all the information I need at my fingertips.
There you have it Daisies! My December setup – and hopefully my setup for all of 2020, honestly. I don’t want to wish the year away, but I can’t wait to be back here in December 2020 and see if I managed to stick with it or if I planner hopped again! What’s your bet?
Don’t forget to come find me on Instagram and YouTube and follow along with my life and plans! As always, thank you for being on this journey with me Daisies!
Xoxo,
Jenn